(1) Field of the Invention
The invention addresses the large-scale commercial installations of hot oil filtration systems used in food processing, particularly to continuous hot oil filtration in the fried foods industry, which includes but not limited to meat, poultry, fish, and chip industries.
(2) Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Food processing plants have a need for filtering hot oil that is used is batch fryers. As food is cooked in the fryers, the food throws off particulates. Sediments in the frying oil left in the oil caramelizes, raising the rancidity of the oil. After the rancidity of the oil reaches a predetermined level, the oil is considered un-usable and is discarded. Production line delays due to oil changes and filtering are expensive and cause wasted oil. This also causes the product quality to deteriorate based on taste, color, and texture. Commercial frying facilities must often devote a significant area and resources to the handling and processes of spent oil.
Typical systems minimize the cost of oil filtration and replacement by using a schedule convenient for production, from time to time, and swap out the old oil for new or cleaner oil, necessitating a pause in the production line. Other systems have a slow continuous filter that drains from the cooking vat (also known as a tank or chamber), filters the oil in some manner without any downtime, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,581,896, U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,595.
Most of these approaches use a paper filter, or a chemical compound used in the cleaning process, requiring a constant expense and increased cost of disposal and sewage due to chemical elements in the filtering. Current techniques offer 8-30 gpm of filtering.
These existing approaches to filtering hot oil are insufficient for industry needs, as they either a) require downtime, b) require human intervention, c) require ongoing purchase of disposable filtering elements, and d) filter too slowly. The present invention eliminates these shortcomings.